the release of the new smash bros. on 3DS has pretty much completely ruined my chances of finishing any other games for the near future, but i took a break from it to sit down with my remaining donkey kong game on NES, donkey kong jr. math. i wasn’t quite sure what to expect, and i was somewhat disappointed to find that the main two modes are 2-player only. also, because i know donkey kong jr. so well the changes in the mechanics were a bit odd at first, namely, that DK jr. no longer has his two-armed faster ascent and instead moves the same speed when travelling up or down a vine.

after i got over my initial reaction i found the game to actually be fairly enjoyable overall, and as is often the case that it feels like this is yet another one of those games that people dismiss without actually giving it a fair chance. the game re-uses most of the mechanics from donkey kong jr. so the jumping is a bit stiff, but otherwise the controls work pretty well. the goal of the main two modes are simple: select numbers and operators in order to reach a specified total number. selecting numbers and operators with DK jr. is more fun than just tapping numbers into a calculator, and although the first mode is pretty straightforward the second mode is actually more satisfyingly challenging. in the first mode you’re often putting together simple equations, like making 37 by selecting 9 * 4 + 1, but in the second mode the number you’re trying to reach is harder to get to since you’re restricted to a pool of 18 numbers, each of which can only be 1 through 9, and the target numbers often have large values and can be negative. so to reach a number like 285 from a starting number of 200 requires some thought, e.g. divide by 5, then multiply by 7, and then add 5. although i didn’t get to play with another person, it’s easy to imagine that going head to head could actually be pretty fun, what with getting in each other’s way, stealing numbers that the other person wants, and having to quickly change your strategy based on what numbers are closer to you.

the third mode is just a series of exercises of different types (e.g. large number addition, simple multiplication, long division, etc.), with a sort of complicated scheme. in each set you’re given 10 problems and the bird on the left drops an egg if you solve it perfectly the first time. the bird on the right shows you which “place” you’re entering numbers for (e.g. for addition that bird will fly over the ones place, then the tens place, hundreds place, etc.), and you can give up at any time by pushing the key into the lock. selecting numbers requires you to climb up and down a chain representing one of the digit places, and to input a number you just move to a different chain. the controls here are a bit more awkward than the other two modes, but since apparently you’re also scored on how quickly you complete each problem, precision and speed is also rewarded. the mode is a bit dry, but still somewhat entertaining (and did work certain brain muscles i haven’t used in a very long time).

as i said, although it’s easy to dismiss games like these, as nintendolife did in their review of the wii virtual console release, those who take the time to actually give it a chance will find a reasonably entertaining game (as nintendolife’s review of the wii u VC version attests). the main downside to the main mode is that it really requires both players to be at the same math level: it’s not really designed for, say, a parent and a child to play together, unless perhaps if the parent is already handicapped by just being unfamiliar with how to play video games. the game may have originally been created as an “edutainment” title with the goal of trying to remove some of the stigma of video games and it apparently was not received well at the time, and although it’s gotten a bad rap over the years i found it to be much more worthwhile than most reviews would claim.

although DK jr. has vague similarities to the first donkey kong game, the same can’t be said for this release. as has often been noted, in those early days carbon-copy sequels weren’t churned out with nearly the same alacrity as nowadays, and i came to DK3 with very little previous knowledge outside of seeing a screenshot or two. the first two games are platformers with an emphasis on running and jumping, but i was surprised to find out that DK3 is actually more of a shoot ’em up.

there’s a lot of interesting gameplay packed into the single-screen arcade experience. the setup is that DK has invaded “stanley the bugman”‘s greenhouse, and stanley, armed only with his trusty bug spray, has to get rid of DK and exterminate the bugs in order to save his plants. the player has to juggle several objectives at once: spray DK enough times to make sure he doesn’t descend far enough to attack stanley himself (thus losing a turn) (stanley can use his bug spray to push DK up off the screen and to the next level in every first and second level of a cycle, and get his head stuck in a beehive in every third level); spray individual bugs that fly around, each with unique behaviors; spray worms that crawl along and can’t be defeated but will pause if hit, often impeding progress; and in a mechanic somewhat similar to defender, make sure none of the bugs make off with any of the five plants, which provide bonus points if they’re saved. once per turn there’s also a can of super spray, the game’s equivalent of an uzi, that basically gives you a free pass through the next couple of levels.

in terms of the pace the game is pretty typical old-school arcade style in that there are only three levels and they loop pretty much infinitely. this game does introduce new enemies at various points, providing slightly more of a progression than some of the other games which increase difficulty by just adding more and faster enemies. like other classic nintendo NES games of the time, there’s a harder mode (“game B”) that can be selected from the start screen, and an alternating two-player mode.

as for the game itself, at first i found it completely foreign (nintendo has very rarely explored the the shooter genre), but after a while i enjoyed the game for what it is. the different bug types are easy to identify and are satisfying to defeat, and having to both manage DK and save the plants from the bugs makes the game feel more dynamic. stanley has more ability than the ship in galaga since he can not only run back and forth, but also move up and down a couple of levels vertically. the game has the usual bright and cheery nintendo exterior, and the game overall doesn’t have significant drawbacks. the first two stages are very similar while the third stage is too easy in comparison, and many times you can just jump in and defeat DK quickly. if you don’t manage to do that you end up spending a lot of time on the more challenging (and thus more fun) gameplay of dodging and defeating bugs, which would seem like a downside, but defeating all the bugs in a stage nets you more points overall, so for an arcade game it’s a reasonable design. (apparently in the arcade version starting with level 160 the game starts repeating only the first (and hardest) stage, although it’s not clear if this is intentional or what happens on the NES version.)

all in all i enjoyed it overall, and the game provides a fairly satisfying, if somewhat uneven, amount of challenge and fun. i wouldn’t say it’s become a great favorite, but it’s an interesting curio in nintendo’s catalog and should be more interesting to fans of shooters, classic arcade gameplay, and/or the donkey kong series, but i imagine most others would find this to be too old-school to spend much time with.

anyway, as with my experience replaying donkey kong it didn’t take me much time at all to remember exactly how to get through each of the game’s four stages. i was reminded of the stiffness of the jumping controls of these early NES games, and i can see how people would be frustrated by it. the climbing mechanics are wholly enjoyable, though, and very responsive. they feel refined and are fun to master, and include a satisfying amount of variety, namely: a two-armed fast climb, a one-armed slow climb, a two-armed slow drop, and a one-armed fast drop. those mechanics have been revisited in subsequent games (such as the underwhelming donkey kong ’94 on game boy and mario vs. donkey kong on GBA), although more as minor diversions as opposed to being the main focus as in this game.

the game is colorful, fun, and well designed, and has memorable enemies and locales. also, aspects of the game feel like they’re loosely connected to the original, such as the final stage of each game in which you have to repeat an action to free the captured target (in the first game you were tasked with jumping over rivets whereas in this game you’re pushing keys into locks). as with many of those early NES titles, the game provides 1 and 2-player alternating normal and hard modes, as well as virtually infinite looping of the game’s four stages. for retro game lovers the fun and challenge is in chasing a high score or seeing how many repetitions of the four stages you can get through, and although most people dismiss the game i personally find it a worthy sequel to the original. each stage has a distinct personality, and the climbing mechanics give the game a completely unique spin that still feels fresh. the one element that sticks out a little and doesn’t quite feel like it belongs is the spring in stage 2, but i find the game enjoyable and it would be awesome if a true revisit were ever created (or if donkey kong, jr. came back as a true character). i don’t recall ever playing the third of the trilogy (creatively titled “donkey kong 3“), but i’ll have to track that one down before too long.

i’m not sure why, but this year has really felt like a mixed bag so far, and my playthrough of donkey kong jungle beat for gamecube was pretty disappointing. the last DK game i’d played, DK: king of swing on GBA, was a fantastic experience, and i suppose i’d been expecting at least as good a game since jungle beat seems to be well regarded and is by the same team at nintendo that had done mario galaxy.

unfortunately, even after playing through the whole game i find myself trying to figure out what people like about it. the bongo controller works reasonably well and i’m glad i have a use for them outside of the donkey konga games, but the game mechanics don’t ever quite transcend the core gimmick and the clapping movement in particular gets to be a chore (and tapping on the sides instead doesn’t feel quite responsive enough). there’s a decent amount of variety in terms of the gameplay, including some punch-out!!-esque fighting sections and some balloon fight-esque flying sections, but the game doesn’t come anywhere close to matching either of those games in terms of the level of sheer fun or sophistication. the central platforming gameplay relies on a lot of walljumping and manic pounding to pummel enemies, both of which get dull fast, and stages lack personality. there’s a distinct lack of variety in the boss battles as well, of which there are only three types, and no one seems to mention the fact that the majority of the time the screen is so zoomed out that you can barely see our hero DK at all. the game is incredibly short and achieves its longevity through the combo system that you have to master. the combo system, which relies on a lot of clapping, works reasonably well, but the stages are so dull that i had absolutely no motivation to explore them much. as a side note, i was surprised to see that the level that the smash bros. brawl stage is based on has pretty much nothing to do with the brawl stage other than the fact that there’s a waterfall in the background. also, an odd thing i noticed was that my memory card had all the stages unlocked, perhaps because i had started the game and then set it aside for a few years.

not much more to say, other than i’m glad the game was so short, otherwise it would’ve been really tedious to finish. the game was one of the few that was slightly remade for wii, and it might be interesting to try that out. otherwise i’m looking forward to DKC returns which looks amazing, although i really should go back and play through the rest of the original DKC games first.

Like this:

one of the games that i played a lot when i was a kid and really liked was clu clu land for NES. there was an expansion-like sequel released for the famicom disk system and some rereleases of the original, but otherwise the game has been sorely neglected. the controls definitely take some getting used to, but the game is loads of fun, esp. with another player, and it gets to be fast paced and manic since your character spends much of her time bouncing off walls and the other player. the boards also feature pac-man like tunnels to help you get through stages more quickly and avoid the spiny enemies. it’s also worth noting that the character is named “bubbles” and is female, although i’m not sure what the official sources for that information are. in any case i highly recommend it.

anyway, i’ve always wanted to play more clu clu land, so when i heard that there was a GBA game that used similar mechanics (so much so that bubbles even makes a cameo appearance), and a donkey kong game no less, i was really looking forward to finding out more. DK: king of swing was released in 2005 and when i first tried it out i was disappointed that it only superficially resembled my beloved clu clu land. somewhat like the GBA game drill dozer, king of swing features a unique control scheme and relies heavily on the L and R shoulder buttons. like clu clu land, king of swing has your character use his arm to latch onto a point and then rotate around it by pressing and holding a button. however, in the former you rotate and let go quickly to navigate a single-screen 2-D board, whereas in the latter you’re actually working your way through a level and oftentimes you’re holding onto a peg or peg board and waiting to avoid a spike or enemy, rotating all the while. in other words, instead of a fast and frantic arcade game, king of swing is actually a platformer with a unique control scheme. oftentimes you’re also moving from the bottom to the top of the board, and missing a peg board and falling down and then having to climb back up gets to be tedious.

this disappointment carried through the first world and boss and into the beginning of the second, and then suddenly the game morphed from a somewhat ho-hum experience to a completely and utterly enjoyable one. the key was that i had finally gotten over the hump of internalizing the game mechanics. in that sense the game is like super mario bros. 2: in that game you had to get used to the physics of throwing vegetables, specifically predicting the arcs they’ll travel in based on how fast you’re running or how high you’re jumping, and in this game you have to get used to the physics of launching DK off of a peg board, depending on what the angle is when you let go. one thing that actually helps with this is playing against the computer in the handful of multiplayer games that are included, which are otherwise all pretty shallow and pointless. similarly, replaying the first few levels and hunting down the crystal coconuts (one in each of the main levels) is also a good way of learning the ropes (or peg boards, i should say).

once i gained a better mastery of the controls i was able to completely enjoy the brilliance of the game. like my other favorite platformers, the game does a great job of introducing new elements in pretty much every stage, but all using the same basic mechanics of navigating series of peg boards. the controls are smooth, and the donkey kong universe makes a perfect match: leaping from peg board to peg board and climbing up peg boards, left and right hands alternating, feel more simian than any other donkey kong game i can think of, with the exception of the great donkey kong jr. everything else you would need or want in a classic platformer are here, including fun bosses, bright and attractive presentation, fun music, and great replay value in the form of diddy mode, in which you have less life, and for the hardcore a truly challenging time attack mode. one small drawback is the last level before the final boss which will have you pulling your hair out but which, as with most games, is fairly straightforward once you master it. the only other complaint is that although the game feels like a complete experience, it does feel a bit on the short side. but i was psyched to see that there’s a sequel. i can’t imagine that the original sold that well, but despite my initial apathy the game has quickly shot up into my list of favorite games of all time. i’m hoping that the sequel will be equally impressive, while at the same time still waiting impatiently for the day that clu clu land makes its return.

Like this:

still on my sequels kick, so i played through the game boy game donkey kong land. i’d played and enjoyed donkey kong country last year and was in the mood for another mindless platformer.

DKL was released just about 6 months after DKC, and i was fully expecting DKL to be just a portable, fairly watered-down version of the original as many other game boy games are, such as operation c (a contra game), and ninja gaiden: shadow which i’ve previously reviewed. but i was surprised to find that the game actually has more than a few unique elements. true, there are a host of levels that are strongly tied to the original game, including jungle, snow, cave, and water levels. but there are entire sections that are completely new and feature some entirely unique game mechanics, including ship, cloud, and city levels. the ship levels seem to be a preview of the ship levels in donkey kong country 2 which would be released another 6 months later. needless to say, these additions were a welcome surprise and really made the game so much more worthwhile than i expected.

the graphics, of course, take a hit and there are some problems with the rendering of the sprites, but for the most part they do a good job and there aren’t any problems that are too distracting. despite the downgrade in graphics, in general the gameplay holds up. although the levels that are based on DKC levels feel like retreads more often than not, the secrets are much better integrated and less arbitrary. the map also now updates to show which levels are fully completed, although i was surprised you don’t have to get all four of the “KONG” letters in the levels for the stage to be marked completed. the biggest complaint that this reviewer at nintendojo had is that to save you have to find all four “KONG” letters in a level. it was rather annoying to not be able to save when you wanted to, but it ended up giving me an incentive to revisit earlier (and easier) levels that i’d previously completed but hadn’t found all the secrets in. i also disagreed with his complaint that the sky level where you have to jump to change the direction of the platform was annoying; it didn’t take too long to get used to it, and besides there was a similar mechanic in the classic SMB3.

so all in all this was a surprisingly decent little game boy game. it still amazes me how much developers were able to do on such a limited platform. the game’s a bit on the short side and definitely easier than the original, but it’s fun and has enough challenges and new elements to keep you interested and has definitely left me looking forward to seeing what surprises are in store for donkey kong country 2.

Like this:

playing brawl has caused me to add several games to my ever-increasing list of games to play, one of which was the classic SNES platformer donkey kong country, thanks to my newfound interest in that great ape acrobat diddy kong. the general consensus on the game nowadays seems to be that when it was released DKC wowed gamers with its amazing graphics, but that its lauded gameplay seems overrated in retrospect. i felt this way about the original sonic game, and like sonic (and a lot of other games) the original DKC also seems to be overlooked nowadays in favor if its sequel.

so, first off, being my first donkey kong game i was pretty amazed at how much this iteration defined the character of donkey kong and his supporting cast (including has arch-nemesis king k. rool) that has endured. previously donkey kong had had only a supporting role at best, and rareware did an admirable job taking the original character as a starting point and really fleshing out his universe.

as for the game itself, i found the game has aged remarkably well. the graphics are still impressive and the controls feel good. the sprites are large but work well, and the enemies, music and sound, and levels are well designed (although there are some rather cheap areas that are maddeningly annoying). the buddy system, in which you switch between donkey and diddy kong on the fly, is a bit under-utilized but still worthwhile, as are the animal buddies you get to use. the use of barrels to blast the characters through the levels also reminded me of sonic and helps give the game a similar sense of speed. the main spin jump attacks of the protagonists also reminded me of sonic, but all the similarities don’t feel too derivative and the main game doesn’t overstay its welcome.

however, the requirements to get 100% completion, by finding all the hidden rooms, definitely feel like extra padding and are oftentimes quite tedious, esp. when taking into account the fact that there’s no system to track your progress in-game or even tell you which levels you haven’t fully conquered yet. as it was i think i finished the game less than 60% complete, and after tracking down some pretty obscure secret rooms i had little motivation to hunt for the rest of them. still, all in all this is a classic in video game history and certainly a better-than-average platformer in general. so i guess i have yet another series that i’ll be working my way through. there are worse problems to have i suppose. 😉